The question of whether or not Marvel is about to announce official plans for Wolverine and the X-Men currently looms over San Diego Comic-Con 2022. After all, such an event would be the perfect time for an announcement of that magnitude. Comic-Con, of course, is when Marvel Studios has dropped several of its biggest movie reveals.
The studio's track record when it comes to Comic-Con has naturally created high expectations for its upcoming Marvel panel on July 23. Typically, Marvel uses this event as an opportunity to release highly anticipated trailers, make huge casting announcements, and unveil a slew of movie titles at one time. Because of this history, all sorts of wild scenarios are on the table. By the end of the panel, audiences could know the full cast for Fantastic Four, an actor for Nova, the complete Thunderbolts roster, a release date and title for Avengers 5, and more.
Unsurprisingly, Wolverine and the X-Men are among the biggest topics going into Comic-Con. At SDCC 2019, Marvel Studios Kevin Feige said that it was too early to discuss “mutants”, but it’s now been three years since that remark was made. With a new Comic-Con panel from Marvel around the corner, it’s worth wondering if the time has finally come for some concrete news on the development of an X-Men project. Confirmation of an X-Men movie and perhaps even some details on the cast (including Wolverine) certainly feel a lot more plausible now than it did in 2019 and could indeed be used to infuse some excitement in Marvel’s Phase 5 plans.
Interestingly, a single episode of Ms. Marvel greatly boosted the chances of an X-Men announcement happening at SDCC 2022. Toward the end of the Ms. Marvel finale, a shocking reveal from Bruno Carrelli confirmed that Kamala Khan – who is known as an Inhuman in Marvel Comics – is a mutant in the MCU. The decision to take this route with Ms. Marvel is a sign that the studio is in the early stages of building an overarching mutant storyline. So if Ms. Marvel’s ending was the first step, the second step could be officially announced at Comic-Con, though it may or may not include Wolverine.
Even if an X-Men project really is in the pipeline, it shouldn’t be taken for granted that Wolverine will be a part of it simply on the basis of him being the brand’s most popular character. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine was such a driving force behind Fox’s X-Men franchise that Marvel may look to do something different with their interpretation of the team by leading the way with different characters. That is a feasible approach, especially when considering the long list of iconic X-Men heroes that Marvel has in its library. So while an X-Men announcement may very well occur at SDCC 2022, the wait for the MCU’s Wolverine could potentially go on for a bit longer.
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